Kind of Like Being a North
by Jake Nickleby
Summary: Michael recalled the time he cruelly teased his new stepsiblings about killing animals. What happens when he gets bored of his “Beardsley” lifestyle, and wishes he could be more like a North kid? He gets Mick to help him out.
1. Kind of Like Being a North

Disclaimer: All characters and events related to _Yours, Mine, & Ours_ are owned by Time Productions Inc, Robert Simonds Productions, Columbia Pictures Corporation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Nickelodeon Movies, Paramount Picutures, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

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Currently looking for Cover Art commissions.

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Chapter One: Kind of Like Being a North

Michael Beardsley recalled the time he cruelly teased his new stepsiblings about killing animals. After several months adjusting to his new life with a new mother figure and ten extra siblings, he began to have a different outlook on his life.

For starters, he became bored with boy scouts, and even began to think it was a bit dorky. With boy scouts as an extracurricular activity out of the picture, Michael had to find something else to do with his time. He thought about his stepsiblings.

Dylan played guitar and made graffiti art. Phoebe also played guitar. Jimi and Mick took care of the family pets. Naoko made films. Joni played saxophone. Lau designed fashion items with his mother, and the twins liked to garden. Even Aldo was creative in his young age.

Then he thought about his own siblings. Will studied all the time. Christina did, well, teenage girl things. Harry brood about all the move he went through in his life. Kelly lived and breathed sports, and his three younger brothers did what little boys did best- play. With the exception of Kelly, he thought that his siblings' extra curricular activities were quite boring. He started to wonder what it would be like to be a member of the North family.

One day, after school, Michael walked into the kitchen for an afternoon snack. It was unusually quiet inside the room, but then a spray of water coming from the sink broke the silence.

At first, Michael did not see anyone inside the kitchen, but then he noticed Mick sitting up on the counter with his feet inside the sink, giving Fiona the pig a soapy bath. His movements were so very still that he blended into the scenery, which came to the conclusion that Michael had thought, for a split second, that there was a ghost living in the lighthouse.

"Mick, I didn't see you there."

"Sorry. Did you need to use the sink?"

"No," Michael replied, jumping up onto the counter on the opposite side of the sink. He stared at Fiona's back for a moment or two in silence. "You take good care of her, don't you?"

"Would you like to try?" Mick asked, handing Michael the sink's hose.

"No, thank you," Michael replied, but took the hose anyway. He pressed down the handle and washed all the suds off of Fiona's back. He accidentally sprayed Mick. Mick laughed, scooping up a handful of soapy water and splashed it against Michael.

"Oh, now you're going to get it!" Michael joked, spraying more water onto Mick. These actions seemed to pass the time rather quickly.

An hour later, Michael laid in bed for a short nap. He woke up with the soapy water stains on his clothing- mostly dry. Why on Earth did he ever sleep in damp clothes, he will never know. To him, sleeping in wet clothing was something outrageous. Heck, wearing jean pants was something outrageous. Something a North would do, and not something a Beardsley would do. He kind of liked being a North.

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End of Chapter One

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21 August 2007


	2. A North In Disguise

For disclaimer on _Yours, Mine, & Ours_, please refer to chapter one.

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Currently looking for Cover Art commissions.

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Chapter Two: A North in Disguise

Out of all of his full-blooded siblings, Michael got along with Kelly the most. Probably because they were the closet in age to each other, but what was most likely not the only reason why. Maybe the main reason, but not the only.

Kelly had a drive. As long as she had sports to occupy her time, then she was pretty content with her life. Changes never really bothered her much. She was also a bit shy and quiet, and always agreed with everyone else. That is what made Kelly so fun and easy-going.

Michael wondered what family Kelly came from, because she definitely did not act like a Beardsley. It was something that he never noticed before, until he moved in with his new step siblings. Until his most recent move, Michael thought Kelly was one of the eight kids that made up the Beardsley family. Then the Norths entered the picture.

It actually annoyed Michael to see Kelly get along with the North family. Why was she so happy to be living with these jerks?

He watched her for a while. At the breakfast table one morning, she stuck an orange peel in her mouth and smiled at Phoebe. The teenager did not seem appreciate the humor, which Michael selfishly thought, Good. That was their gag, and she was using it on them!

When their ten stepsiblings set off the fire alarm, causing the Beardsley kids to evacuate the house in their underwear, Michael swore he heard Kelly laughing about it later. How could she? he thought. They could have been seriously in trouble, and she was laughing at their horrible joke!

Then came the family meeting and the stupid "talking stick". None of the Beardsley children wanted to participate in Helen's idiotic ritual. With the exception of the three younger siblings, who were off in their own little world, Kelly was probably the only one who truthfully had nothing to complain about. Michael had even heard her happily sigh as she passed the stick down the line.

These were the events that made Michael wonder what family Kelly really came from. Michael looked at the facts. The Beardsleys' had Type A personalities. The Norths… Type B. Kelly was a definite Type B personality. That is when he concluded that her last name might be Beardsley, but to Michael, Kelly was a North in disguise.

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End of Chapter Two

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6 October 2007


	3. Two Worlds Collide

For disclaimer on _Yours, Mine, & Ours_, please refer to chapter one.

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Currently looking for Cover Art commissions.

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Chapter Three: Two Worlds Collide

Ever since the North-Beardsley family had moved into the lighthouse, no one had ever really settled down (with the exception of the housekeeper, Missus Munion). Dylan and Will graduation high school. Will was accepted into Havard, and Dylan moved to New York City, where he joined a rock-n-roll band know as Puppet Fever.

The family (although, at first, some reluctantly) agreed that the next eldest child to inherit Dylan and Will's old bedroom will have the room to him or herself. Since Christina and Phoebe were both a year younger than Dylan and Will, one of them would move into the boys' room.

Phoebe sat lazily on her bed as Christina had already packed up her belongings in her neatly lined-up suitcases. Picking up the suitcases, she strolled right in. Finally, the two high school seniors thought. My own room without her!

However, about a year later, Christina and Phoebe graduated high school and decided to move in together in an apartment downtown, nearby the community college, where they had both decided to attend. Who knew if that was the smartest choice to make, since the two girls did not get along sometimes, but they seemed to get along well enough to agree on that decision.

Naoko also left the home, for she had been accepted in a special program at the film academy in New York. That left Kelly and Joni to share their own room together, which drove the girls into happy hysterics, since they had become the best of friends since the melding of the two families.

Jimi and Harry went to share Christina's bedroom, and with the four youngest boys growing up fast, Eli and Otter got Phoebe's room, so the younger kids had just a little more space to grow into.

And so, with Lau gone at a fashion summer camp, Michael and Mick shared their bedroom just between each other during the season. Though it was nice to have twice as much space to himself, Michael found it a bit awkward how empty and silent the room was. He sat rigidly at the side of his bed, glancing all around.

Mick, who sat on the floor, leaning against the side of his bed across the room, glancing all around.

"Um..." he started, trying to break the awkward silence. Mick, who sat on the floor, leaning against the side of his bed across the room, slowly looked up from his comic book.

"What?" he responded curiously.

"Well..." Michael spoke, still feeling uncomfortable. "We... kind of have our room now... What do you want to do with it?"

Mick shrugged and turned his attention back to his comic book. Michael sighed, and flopped on his bed. Summer break was just about started, and he was already bored.

"I'm done," Mick said, and Michael turned his head to see Mick holding up his comic book. "Wanna read?" Michael shook his head.

"I'm not really into comic books."

Mick shrugged, and placed it down on the floor next to him, then got up.

"I'm going to get a snack. You want anything?"

Michael was craving for some cheese-flavored crackers, but said "no" anyway.

As Mick went out the door, Michael starred at the comic book on the wooden floor. He reached over for it, and picked it up. He flipped through he pages once, then went back to the front, and opened to the first page.

From the moment Michael read the first speech bubble, he became captivated by the plot of the story. He had never been so interested in classic comic book heroes, such as Batman or Superman. But this, this was absolutely fantastic. The plot, the characters, the ink and color- just stunning!

In what seemed like a matter of minutes, Michael was hanging onto the last page of the book, in which the hero was tied up and dangling above a tub of bubbling acid; a cliffhanger.

Michael gasped. _WHAT HAPPENS?_ he yelled in his mind. By this time, Mick had came back with, ironically, a popcorn bowlfull of fish and square-shaped cheese-flavored crackers that was carried in one arm, and a drink in the other hand. He was a little surprised to see Michael so interested in his comic book, or to even had picked it up in the first place, but his face didn't show that he was fazed at all.

"I got the next issue, if you want to read it," Mick mentioned. Michael looked up at the other boy. It was like Mick had read his mind. But then again, it was quite obvious what Michael was thinking.

"Could I, really?" Michael was on the borderline of acting like a hyper-active child, exited about an upcoming birthday party that he was invited to.

"Sure", Mick replied, shrugging, as he put down his bowl and drink on the nearby desk, and pulled down a medium-sized shoebox from a shelf bolted a third up on the wall. Setting the shoebox on the bed next to Michael, Mick lifted up the lid. Taking the first book on the top of the pile, he handed it to Michael.

"This is the latest issue, but I think the first five issues of the series are the best so far. It shows bits of the origins of the characters." Mick reached for the bottom on the stack and slipped out the mentioned books, then handed the bunch to the former boy scout.

Not too long after, Mick and Michael were having their own mini-party, having a feast of chips and soda pop while reading some of Mick's finest comics, which lasted well after nightfall.

It then occurred to Michael that moments like these were going to last all summer long, once his and Mick's worlds collided right into each other.

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End of Chapter Three

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30 September 2008


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